"Children no longer want to go to daycare out of fear."
German children in a kindergarten in Bochujm have been trained to flee inside if daycare workers blow crisis whistles if there is danger, all due to asylum shelter right next door.
At the AWO kindergarten at Höntroper Straße, daycare workers and children are terrified due to a range of incidents, including “massive verbal assaults,” stones being thrown at the kindergarten, and individuals climbing onto the daycare property.
As Welt reports: “Since the beginning of the year, teachers at a local daycare center have been threatened and even had stones thrown at them. Parents and children are now afraid….As an initial measure, the daycare center has drawn up an emergency plan with the children and equipped all teachers with whistles."
“The children were trained. Theoretically, this happens when an incident occurs and a whistle is blown. The children should leave everything and then run into the daycare center,” said Nicola Heiland, the father of a child in the daycare center.
One mother, Romy Keller, told Welt: “That makes me angry. I can’t understand how a city can be responsible that an emergency shelter for drug addicts is right next to two schools and a kindergarten.”
In a report from German public media station WDR, a mother said she witnessed an intoxicated woman climbing the fence between the two facilities and then running on the property of the kindergarten.
In another instance, a man came to the property several times. "Once he tried to climb over the fence. He has verbally threatened educators. And this man was here several times, for example, he opened the door to the kindergarten, but didn’t go in."
Radio Bochum reported on the incident as well, noting in an article: "The children no longer want to go to daycare; they're scared and have nightmares. It's difficult for parents when children talk about naked men or wake up in the night."
The government will not respond to an interview, but released a statement referring to an "isolated incident."
Parents are demanding the very least a privacy screen on the fence so residents of the center cannot look at their children.